Pink Elephants Explained

Pink Elephants
Type:	Album
Artist:	Mick Harvey
Cover:	MickHarvey PinkElephants.jpg
Released:	27 October 1997
Genre:	Rock
Length:	46:45
Label:	Mute^[1]
Producer:	Mick Harvey with Victor Van Vugt and Tony Cohen
Prev Title:	Intoxicated Man
Prev Year:	1995
Next Title:	One Man's Treasure
Next Year:	2005

Pink Elephants is Mick Harvey's second album of Serge Gainsbourg covers, released in 1997.^{[2] [3]}

Critical reception

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Harvey’s English versions of Gainsbourg songs maintain the latter’s lounge-lizard perversions, hilarious existential angst, and theatrical grandeur." Trouser Press called "I Love You...Nor Do I", the Anita Lane and Nick Cave duet, "erotic" and "the album’s centerpiece."^[4]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Serge Gainsbourg, except where indicated.

1. "Pink Elephants" (Mick Harvey, Bertrand Burgalat) – 2:35
2. "Requiem. . ." (Gainsbourg, Michel Colombier) (translation: Larry Norman, Pierre Gottfried Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:35
3. "The Javanaise" (translation: Harvey) – 2:30
4. "Black Seaweed" (translation: Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:21
5. "Comic Strip" (translation: Bill Soly) – 2:42
6. "The Ticket Puncher" (translation: Harvey & Alain Chamberlain) – 2:50
7. "Non Affair" (translation: Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:30
8. "Scenic Railway" (translation: by Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:52
9. "To All the Lucky Kids" (translation: Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 3:53
10. "Anthracite" (translation: Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:20
11. "Manon" (translation: Norman, Imhof, & Harvey) – 2:20
12. "I Love You...Nor Do I" (Harvey) – 4:38
13. "The Ballad of Melody Nelson" (Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier) (translation: Sarah Owen & Harvey) – 1:56
14. "Torrey Canyon" (translation: Owen & Harvey) – 3:12
15. "Who Is 'In' Who Is 'Out'" (translation: Harvey & Chamberlain) – 3:14
16. "Hotel Specific" (Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier) (translation: Harvey, Katy Beale, & Chamberlain) – 3:42

Personnel

• Mick Harvey – vocals, guitar, bass
• Anita Lane – vocals on "I Love You...Nor Do I" and "The Ballad of Melody Nelson"
• Nick Cave – vocals on "I Love You...Nor Do I"
• Chris Hughes – drums
• Nick Burton – violin
• Steve Bentley-Klein – violin
• James Cruickshank – organ, vocals
• David McClymont – bass
• Loene Carmen – backing vocals on "Torrey Canyon" and "Who Is 'In' Who Is 'Out'"
• Monica McMahon – backing vocals on "Torrey Canyon" and "Who Is 'In' Who Is 'Out'"
• Abigail Trundle – cello
• Bertrand Burgalat – string arrangements
• Kiernan Box – accordion on "The Javanaise"
• Eleanor Gilchrist – violin
• Theresa Whipple – viola
• Jeremy Morris – violin
• Sarah Beardsley- guitar

Technical

• P.A. Taylor - sleeve layout
• Katy Beale - photography

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mick Harvey: Intoxicated Man / Pink Elephants, PopMatters. Maria. Schurr. July 11, 2014.
2. Web site: Mick Harvey Biography, Songs, & Albums. AllMusic.
3. Web site: Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey And The Pink Elephants. https://web.archive.org/web/20220106175256/http://www.mtv.com/news/2095/bad-seeds-mick-harvey-and-the-pink-elephants/. dead. 6 January 2022. Gil. Kaufman. MTV News.
4. Web site: Mick Harvey . Trouser Press . 6 January 2022.